/********************************************************************************
 * Copyright 2009 The Robotics Group, The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute,
 * Faculty of Engineering, University of Southern Denmark
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 ********************************************************************************/

#ifndef RW_PLUGIN_PLUGINFACTORYBASE_HPP
#define RW_PLUGIN_PLUGINFACTORYBASE_HPP

#include <rw/core/Ptr.hpp>

#include <string>

namespace rw { namespace plugin {

    /** @addtogroup plugin */
    /*@{*/

    /**
     * @brief Base class for PluginFactory.
     *
     * When a PluginFactory is loaded it is stored as a PluginFactoryBase within the
     * rw::plugin::PluginRepository.
     */
    class PluginFactoryBase
    {
      public:
        //! smart pointer for this class
        typedef rw::core::Ptr< PluginFactoryBase > Ptr;

        /**
         * @brief Constructor
         *
         * @param [in] identifier used to identify the plugin
         */
        PluginFactoryBase (const std::string& identifier);

        /**
         * @brief Destructor
         */
        virtual ~PluginFactoryBase (void);

        /**
         * @brief Returns identifier associated with the PluginFactory
         * @return Identifier for the plugin
         */
        virtual std::string identifier () const;

      private:
        std::string _identifier;
    };

    /**
     * @brief Definition of rw::core::Ptr to a PluginFactoryBase
     */
    typedef rw::core::Ptr< PluginFactoryBase > PluginFactoryBasePtr;

    /** @} */

}}    // namespace rw::plugin

#endif    //#ifndef RW_PLUGIN_PLUGINFACTORYBASE_HPP
